VANCOUVER - A former police detective in Vancouver has told CBC News that
the man charged with killing six women was on the police list of suspects as far
back as 1999.

Former police detective inspector Kim Rossmo says even though he wasn't
directly involved in the case, he knew Robert William Pickton was on the top 10
list of suspects in the cases of dozens of missing women from the city's
downtown east side.

"I heard about him from the investigators looking at the missing persons'
case and the number of those individuals that I heard about was probably five or
less. So that's why I'm saying you look at him as being one of their top 10,"
said Rossmo.

Rossmo is now the head of research for the Police Foundation in
Washington, D.C. He's best-known for a geographic profiling system he created
that helps to identify serial killers by where their crimes are committed.

He says if he'd been asked to use his system in 1999, there are two
geographic facts that might have given police more cause to look at the pig
farmer.

"One is he had a place that allowed him to dispose of bodies, and two, he
made regular visits to the downtown eastside for the purpose of going to the
rendering plant," said Rossmo.

A police spokesperson wouldn't comment on whether Pickton was a key
suspect as long as three years ago. At that point, all six of the women he's
charged with murdering were still alive.

Family of the missing women have said they went to police with stories
about Pickton's pig farm in 1998. They said they feared police ignored them.

Why a search warrant wasn't issued for the farm at the time is still
unknown.